On Wednesday, February 23, 2005 I attended the Vagina Monologues for the second year. The people at are in charge of running the monologues sell items at the play to raise money for the women's resource center. I purchased a pin that said, "I heart my vagina". I found that this pin had a positive message and spoke for a lot of my beliefs. I began to wear this pin to my high school. I am a senior in high school and I did not see a problem in wearing the pin. On Tuesday, March 15, 2005 I walked into the main office to turn in my senior pictures. One of the secretaries told me that the pin was not allowed to be worn in school. She then proceeded to bring me into the counseling office to talk to someone else. Two of the high school counselors said that the pin had to be taken off because, it was not school appropriate and that it was offensive. I told them that I did not find the pin to be offensive to anyone. The principal was then called in and told me that by wearing that pin, I was giving people the wrong ideas and that they are going to assume that I am an "open invitation." I told her that the message of the pin was completely opposite of what they were telling me. I tried to explain that the pin was to raise awareness about the issues that women face and to have people approach me and talk to me about what it represents. I believed that it stood for being proud of who you are and being able to express those views. The principal said that I could take the pin off or face the consequences. I knew what I had to do. I kept the pin on and I was going to fight for what I believed was the correct thing. I then gathered a group of over 100 students in my school with the help of another girl and we created t-shirts for both females and males. The female shirts would say, "I love my vagina," and the male shirts would say, "I support your vagina." The back of the shirts would say, "I am wearing this shirt because I believe in gender equality, sexual awareness, women's rights, and freedom of speech." I thought that making these shirts and having so much support would make the administration consider what they are doing. I then proceeded to contact nurses, college professors, and other community members to support my cause. I am having them write in letters of support explaining why the word vagina should not be tabooed and not be considered offensive of inappropriate. About a week went by with me wearing the pin and gathering support. On Monday, March 21, 2005 a person in my grade went to the counselors and told them about the shirts. The administration began to worry. They told my teachers in my classrooms to make sure that I was not wearing the pin. On Wednesday, March 23, 2005, I walked into my first hour class and immediately my teacher told me to take the pin off or to leave the room. I asked her, "where should I go?" She called the office and they sent me to see my assistant principal. He told me that I had two choices: I could take off the pin and go back to class, or I could leave the school and not return again until it was off. Essentially, if I never took off the pin, I would not graduate from high school. He left me with no choice and since that day was the last of the quarter, I had tests all day, so I took off the pin after an hour long talk. I went back to class furious and mad that they blackmailed me into this position. I am graduating in the top 5% of my class and I have represented our school in front of the world at the International Science and Engineering Fair for the past four years. I could not believe that the administration was willing to expel me because of a pin. I then went to class for about 2-3 hours until I got called into the counseling office. I went and talked to the counselor and she told me that I was not allowed to wear the pin. That it was inappropriate. I asked her if she ever thought that the school was hypocritical. We are required to teach sexual education and yet students are not allowed to be proud to have a vagina. I discussed why I was wearing the pin and what it meant to me again and again. She told me that she knew about the t-shirts and that if they get made, the students will overthrow the administration and cause a riot. She told me that if that happens, essentially, I will be expelled. My accomplice and I then sat and thought about what to do. The two of us would be in an extreme amount of danger to not even graduate from high school. We both need to graduate and we need help from people outside of the school. The only step to take against the school doing this to us, is to take a civil lawsuit up against the school. I need support and help in order to be able to do this. Help me out. E-mail me and I will give you information.
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sarah_jacobson) wrote,
